


Let Somebody Else Take the Hit, Yeah?

by Bestboiuwu



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Kai and Zane have a discussion, Post S11, Self-Sacrifice, Talking, bad habits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25762915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bestboiuwu/pseuds/Bestboiuwu
Summary: "Zane." The green LEDs behind her eyes flicker. "I have seen you die twice, now, because you put the safety of the others above that of your own. For me, the first time, it was only a couple of days before I saw you again. For them, it was months."
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	Let Somebody Else Take the Hit, Yeah?

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by Fanficlover666 . I would tag them but I don't know how ao3 works.  
> The prompt I got was "Could you maybe do one where all the ninja confront Zane about his self-sacrificing habits?"  
> Not quite what I wrote, mostly just Kai, but I think the message is there

They are in the middle of a battle, fighting another amoral, incomprehensible villain, the same as they have many times before. The six of them are surrounded on all sides by a wide array of enemies, with the big bad boss standing directly in front of them. This big, bad monster launches an attack at the six of them.

Zane moves to take the hit.

"Oh no you don't!" Kai yells, and jumps in front of him.

There is a fireball bigger than any of them have ever seen Kai summon. It swirls around the six of them, an unbreakable wall of protective fury, and envelopes the enemy attack whole. When the fire is gone, Kai's sleeves are singed and his clothes are steaming. He turns around and shoves Zane in the chest, hard. "Stop fucking doing that!" He yells, before jumping back into the battle.

"What do you think he meant?" Zane asks. It is several days later, that battle is done, and he and Pixal are sitting on the roof together, watching the evening sun fade behind the clouds.

"Hm." Pixal says. "While I cannot speak to the intentions of others, if I may, I believe he was referring to your self-sacrificing nature."

"My what?"

"During this battle, the enemy launched an attack, yes? And you jumped in front of the others."

"That is what happened, yes."

"And you do this frequently"

"I don't know what you mean-"

"Zane." The green LEDs behind her eyes flicker. "I have seen you die twice, now, because you put the safety of the others above that of your own. For me, the first time, it was only a couple of days before I saw you again. For them, it was months."

"...ah."

The conversation ends there.

Several more days pass, Pixal's words weighing heavy on his mind. 

"Kai"

"Yeah?" 

They're in the kitchen, just the two of them. Kai had just poured himself a generous bowl of cereal.

"I was hoping to talk to you, about the other day. Do you remember when you summoned that massive fire ball?"

Kai choked on his cereal a little bit before setting down his bowl.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"What did you mean, the stuff that you said after. And when you shoved me."

"Oh."

There's a pause, as Kai brings his hands up to the back of his neck and avoiding eye contact. "You-you do this  _ thing _ , especially when we're in a fight, it's- it's like-" he lets out a huff of air. "god, I'm bad at this. It doesn't always have to be you, you know?"

"What?"

"Fuck, dude, remember the overlord?"

"Of course I remember-"

"And remember the never realm?"

"I'm assuming these are supposed to be rhetorical questions"

"You know how the only reason you even ended up in the never realm in the first place was because you pushed Sensei out of the way? And it wasn't even, like, you pushed him out of the way of a teleportation beam, you just pushed him out of the way of some giant fucking laser." He pauses to wave his hands around nebulously. "You didn't know what it did. We didn't know what it did. It could've been deadly. We thought it was. We thought you were dead, dude. Again."

Zane stayed quiet, taking all this information in.

"Both times, we thought you were dead because  _ you  _ decided to take the big hit. You decided to sacrifice yourself for the sake of everybody else. And like, it doesn't have to be you, dude."

Zane was quiet for a moment. "I'm...not sure I agree. My purpose is to protect others. If I fail to fulfill that purpose-"

"Dude, you don't think it's that way for all of us? We're Ninja, it's our job to protect everybody. Remember when I unlocked my true potential? It was literally all about protecting Lloyd. Believe me, no one gets it more than I do. But also believe me when I say that you've sacrificed more than anybody could be expected to in single lifetime. It's time to give someone else a turn."

"But, if I am not a protector-"

"Buddy. Right now, the best thing that you can do to protect us is stop getting into so much damn trouble." He takes a step forward and knocks on Zane's metal chest, right above where his heart would be. "It hurts, you know. When we think you're dead. Remember what happened with Cole? When we thought he was dead? It's just like that, we care about you just as much as we care about him. Just as much as  _ you  _ care about him." He plants his hand firmly on Zane's shoulder. "We all care about you just as much as you care about us. So let somebody else take the hit next time, yeah?"


End file.
